(Area) Dove Hunting season opens September 1st.
The cool night time temperatures move morning doves through Iowa. “It’s available to anybody regardless of sill level, mobility, any age. You can take part in morning dove hunting. It’s not really physically taxing. It is a good season, it’s an enjoyable hunt.”
Bryan Hayes with the DNR Office in Lewis says 2011 was the first year for dove hunting in Iowa. “They really have a preference for bare ground. You’ll see them feeding on bare ground picking up weed seeds or small grains. You’re going to have to get somewhere where there is bare or open ground. Now that might be a corn field that’s been chopped, a new planting of CRP, or a recently mowed hayfield, but #1 on the list is sunflower food plots.”
Hayes lists some potential destinations. “Guthrie County at Bays Branch, northern Shelby County has a big wildlife area called the Petersen Wildlife Area. Union County around 3-mile lake and 12-mile lake. Taylor County has some available. Fremont County down around Riverton you can find those sunflower food plots to hunt morning doves.”
The season runs runs September 1st through November 9th.
